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Tulip Time Rally!

A fun road rally will be held on May 27, 2017. It will start in Mesquite, and end in McKinney, TX. We will present our annual Tulip Time Rally, named for the spring flower and the "Tulip" instructions that we will be using.

Most of the rally will be on roads we have not used in years, if at all. Some of them are scenic and/or curvy, and some of them have plenty of bluebonnets along the way, at least they do at the moment.

Online registration is open. Go to msreg.com/TTR17msr for more detailed information on the event. To reserve a spot, page down and click on "Continue", and follow the instructions. Any 4-wheel, street-legal car is welcome. There must be two people old enough to read, as driver and navigator; other passengers are allowed.

Your score will come mainly from answers to questions about signs you see along the route. As they say, the questions are easy, but the answers, not so much!

No, no, no! And no. That was a funny movie, but we are at the other end of the spectrum. Slow and careful wins the rally. We give you plenty of funny signs to find (or funny questions about ordinary signs that you find), and some good driving roads, that can still be fun at the speed limit. If the speed limit is 45, and you have curve warnings set to 20MPH, can't you have fun? Our course is approved by a licensed Rally Safety Steward, so you know it's safe. Join us!

There are now sixteen cars entered in the rally. This far out, I estimate about 35 cars by rally day. Cars included are Chevy Corvette, Cruze and Silverado, Chrysler, Fiat Abarth, Ford Mustang, Honda(2), Jaguar XK8, Lincoln, Mazda Miata (2), Mini Cooper S, Mitsubishi, Scion, and Volvo. The weather is predicted to be mostly sunny and 85 degrees. The long-distance kudos up to this point go to the car from Rio Vista, TX, about 70 miles from the start.

It went very well, thanks for asking! We had 32 car sign up, 30 started, and 29 finished. The winning car only got 6 penalty points the entire day. Half the field had never run a rally before, and we gave them a good lesson in how to do it.

Put August 19th on your calendar. We will give you a map with 12 (or so) points marked on it, and you have to figure out the shortest route to visit all of them. Then go drive the route you have picked. Shortest mileage wins.

No, and no police cars with flashing lights, no donuts by the winner in the parking lot, everyone's car was still in the same shape at the end as it was at the start, and everyone made it to the end, except someone who was called home by the baby sitter (everyone's OK). In spite of all this, they had fun, and were in a good mood at the end, eating BBQ. If you didn't know who Melissa McCarthy or sassy hen fruit is, you might not have scored well.....